Dalhousie Conference on University Teaching and Learning
Creating Connections:
Building Communities within, Between and Beyond our Institutions
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 (online event) | Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (in-person event)
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
The 27th annual Dalhousie Conference on University Teaching and Learning (DCUTL) celebrates university teaching and learning among faculty, staff, and graduate students. It is a showcase for current research and practice and provides opportunities to foster new ideas and projects. We invite our friends, colleagues and communities to share solutions, to seed ideas and to celebrate successes, contributing to a vibrant 2-day conference on the theme of connection.
The call for proposals is now open!
Logistics and FAQs
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Our Theme
We live and work in a complex global ecosystem in which creating partnerships, nurturing relationships, and building communities has never been more important. How can we help our students make the connections, between each other, their instructors, their disciplines and their futures, that create a vibrant, creative, academic culture? How can we enhance collaboration with colleagues so that students thrive, and our interdisciplinary endeavours rise to meet the ‘wicked problems’ of our time?
How are we providing the kinds of interactions, partnerships, and relationships that weave our collective humanity and empathy through all that we do? How are we providing opportunities for students to build supportive and trusting communities between each other and with us? And, as we mark ten years since the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, how are we disrupting western notions of what knowledge might be and the forms it can take? How are we dismantling the colonial legacy of the academy, re-thinking education within frames of reference that underscore connection and community?
Join us to explore the place of connection and community in the future of higher education, and to investigate the role they might play in embedding a culture of learning and teaching within our institutions, and a just society beyond them.
Our Conference
Tuesday 29th April will be offered in a dual delivery format. All presentations including our keynote will take place online, but with dedicated collaborative spaces available on the Dalhousie campus for those who want to attend in person. The day will be punctuated by time and space for reflection and conversation, with attendees connecting online or in-person to share thoughts and expand on themes.
Wednesday 30th April will be a day of connection on campus, opening with a blend of a panel discussion and roundtable session which will address the challenges and trends which emerge from our discussions. This will lead into a day of workshops through which we will create time and space for conversation and connection, culminating in a celebratory summative session.
At the end of both days, participants will be invited to continue their conversations at The Social, Dalhousie’s dedicated space for informal collegial connection, and afterwards in downtown Halifax.
Who should attend?
Academic staff
Administrators
Librarians
Staff
Teaching assistants
Postdoctoral scholars
Graduate students
The annual Dalhousie Conference on University Teaching and Learning (DCUTL) is organized by the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT). We would like to thank faculty and staff for proposal review and program development support, the Dalhousie Student Union for providing event space, Chartwells for catering, and Dalhousie Conference Services for assisting with registration.
The DCUTL organizers are dedicated to providing a safe conference experience for everyone, that is free of discrimination, harassment and violence.
Accessibility Statement
Creating an accessible and optimal learning environment is paramount for the CLT: Please email us at clt@dal.ca to let us know if you anticipate any barriers we will need to remove in the learning environment, or if there is anything in particular you feel we should know that will best facilitate your learning experience. The information you share will be kept confidential and only shared with the session facilitators. Additionally, please reach out to us with any questions you might have. We ask that participants be respectful of those with significant allergies and avoid wearing perfume, aftershave, cologne, and highly scented hairspray, soaps, lotions, and shampoos.
Treaty Acknowledgment
Dalhousie University operates in the unceded territories of the Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey, and Peskotomuhkati Peoples. These sovereign nations hold inherent rights as the original peoples of these lands, and we each carry collective obligations under the Peace and Friendship Treaties. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms Aboriginal and Treaty rights in Canada.
We recognize that African Nova Scotians are a distinct people whose histories, legacies, and contributions have enriched that part of Mi'kma'ki, currently known as Nova Scotia, for over 400 years.